Continuing with our series on Boycotting the Olympics … Have you seen the male gymnasts? Some will be disappointed that they wear boxer shorts, but that is not what I wanted to talk about. Watching them (do very badly, by the way) I recalled that the argument has been made that this is probably the oldest Olympic sport. This assertion has been made because the earliest art in the region, predating the Greeks, includes dramatic depictions of the ancient art of Bull Jumping.

Here’s a picture from an ancient text with the title, roughly translated, “Bull Jumping for Dummies” …

This has led to speculation that the pummel horse, your typical floor routine, and possibly even the suspended rings ultimately derive from this ancient Minoan past time.

The continuity between Minoan and Greek hardly needs to be argued for. Bull jumping is still practiced today, though the bulls are smaller and the jumpers larger, of course.

Comments

Krazd: It’s adapted from a painting of the last phase of the Minoan palace at Knossos, which was destroyed (nobody knows how, tho’ everybody likes to speculate) around 1400 bc. The original fresco is conventionally dated to 1550-1450 bc, but it could be a little later.

Check out “The King Must Die” by Mary Stewart. historical novel about King Theseus as a bull dancer in Crete. Stewart is a very talented writer and reading, and re-reading, her books is always enjoyable.

This was actually started in 400 BC by the Picans. It’s a little known fact that children were taught the sport at a young age by attaching ears of corn to a dog’s head to practice their flipping. As they got older, sharpened sticks replaced the corn. An ancient story says that a brass young man became bored with bulls and tried a rhino. It doesn’t say what happened, but i can imagine it was disastrous!

Marty, ears of corn did not exist in Europe until after the discovery of America where corn originated. Other types of grain such as barley were called corn before indian corn was introduced to Europe from America.

The term “pummel routine” is routinely used in the business. And Stephanie, as usual, has comprehended the the idea here. The pummel is the bull, the floor is the Minoan hall of the bulls.

To recreate this, one can imagine having a large area like where one does a floor routine, but with a pummel horse in the middle of it integrated into the routine. To make it more interesting, the coach from an opposing team can have a rope attached to the pummel horse, pulling it around randomly.

Given the beautiful detail with which it was depicted in Minoan fresco, sculpture and jewelry, and the fact that the depictions are consistent, in the absence of proof that it was impossible, I have to believe they did it exactly the way they depicted it, and that they vaulted up and dived over the bull’s horns, did a hand-stand on it’s back (or a shoulder stand) and then somersaulted off.

He’s using a smaller animal, but he’s got more than ample height over it, such that it would be possible with a much bigger animal.

As to who, I would believe an analysis of the penis sheathes or whatever the hell they were that the depictions are of men, but I don’t see why it would be impossible for women – young female gymnasts are extremely nimble and have a very high power to weight ratio.

As to why, everyone seems to have suggested a religious motive, rite of passage etc, but is it inconceivable that they just did it as a spectator sport?

This was never an Olympic Game. This was simply a sport that the Minoan Civilization participated in doing. It was called Bull Dancing. Men and female did this spot actually. The picture you showed are females doing the dance. It is also not a fresco from Minoan age, at least not an original. This: is the famous fresco http://www.marin.edu/~jim/photos/bullstuff/bulldancelg.jpg

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